


just hanging out

by amsves



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is 8 in this fic, Don’t copy to another site, Fictober 2019, Gen, Pre-Canon, Rock Climbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 15:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amsves/pseuds/amsves
Summary: “Please? It’ll be fun, trust me.”





	just hanging out

**Author's Note:**

> Fictober day 1!

“Please? It’ll be fun, trust me.”

Nathalie let Adrien’s words sink in for a moment before she replied. “Have you finished all the work your tutors left you?” 

Adrien nodded. 

“Did you do a good job?”

Another nod. 

“Have you practiced the piano yet today?”

“Yes, I’ve done everything I had to. Look, my room is even clean!” Adrien threw an arm out and gestured to his admittedly very tidy bedroom. “So please?”

Nathalie thought of one more thing that might get her out of this. “We haven’t had our Chinese conversation practice yet today.”

Adrien slumped forward slightly. “But after that? If I do a really good job, will you  _ please  _ climb the rock wall with me?”

Nathalie sighed. “Okay, sure. If you do well in your practice, I’ll climb with you.” Hopefully, Gabriel and Emilie would be done with … whatever they were doing by then, and then they’d need Nathalie again. What were they doing again, exactly? Nathalie didn’t really know. Couples things, maybe? Gabriel had been deliberately unclear when he asked her to stay with Adrien. 

She was a personal assistant, not a tutor or nanny. Still, a job was a job, and this one paid quite nicely, even if it wasn’t exactly what it said on the tin.

Adrien plopped himself down on one end of the couch. Nathalie perched herself on the other end. “Ready to begin?”

Adrien cleared his throat, and started the conversation off. “Nǐ hǎo, Nathalie.”

They practiced for the usual thirty minutes in their usual way, with Nathalie prompting questions and Adrien trying to figure out how to answer with his limited vocabulary. ‘Limited’ wasn’t really a fair descriptor, though, since he was quite proficient for a boy so young. She was sure he would catch up to her in no time, or maybe even surpass her. That would be fine with her; she didn’t particularly care to be a master of Mandarin Chinese. Conversational fluency was more than sufficient for her career choice. 

When the thirty-minute timer rang on Nathalie’s phone, she stifled a groan. She was really going to have to do this, wasn’t she?

She glanced at Adrien, who was staring at her with the sad puppy eyes he did so well. “Let me find a change of clothes,” she sighed, “And then I’ll climb with you. But I can’t do that in these.”

“You can borrow Mom’s clothes!” Adrien suggested excitedly, hopping off the couch. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind!”

“Adrien, I couldn’t--”

“I’ll go get them for you, so you don’t have to go through her stuff,” he interrupted. “I know you’re not supposed to go in their room, but Mother lets me in there sometimes, so I know where she puts things.”

It was clear she wouldn’t be able to talk him out of this one. Well, if the Agrestes had a problem with it, maybe they shouldn’t leave their eight-year-old son alone with his father’s personal assistant without anything to do. 

She followed Adrien down the hall to the master bedroom. He opened the door slowly, taking care not to have it make too much noise, and when there was about an inch gap between the door and the frame he peered into the room cautiously. “I don’t see anyone,” he whispered, “I think the coast is clear.”

“If you’re so sure your mother wouldn’t mind, I don’t see why you have to sneak around,” Nathalie observed dryly. 

“I’m not supposed to be out of my room right now,” he replied sheepishly, before ducking into their bedroom. “I just need a minute, and then we’ll go right back!”

_ This kid is going to get me fired, or maybe killed _ , Nathalie thought to herself, stationed outside the master bedroom while Adrien searched within. She hoped he didn’t make a mess. Or that he didn’t bring clothes that wouldn’t fit her after all. Or that--

Adrien reappeared in the hallway, clutching a bundle of clothes to his chest. “Let’s go!”

“Your father doesn’t like you running in the halls,” she reminded him when they arrived back in his room. “You would have been in twice as much trouble had he caught you.”

“But he didn’t,” Adrien pointed out, “Because we got back here super fast. Anyways, here.” He passed her the bundle of clothes. “You can change in my bathroom.”   


“Thanks,” she deadpanned, and did just that. Adrien had  stolen provided for her a long T-shirt, a pair of athletic leggings, a pair of socks, and some athletic sneakers. None of these things looked particularly high-fashion, but the  _ Gabriel _ logo present on every piece betrayed their true nature: fully dressed, her outfit probably cost around 900 euros.

Nathalie hoped nothing bad would happen to the clothes Adrien had smuggled for her. With any luck, they would end up in Emilie’s hamper before she noticed anything amiss, and neither Adrien’s father nor mother would be none the wiser.

She left the bathroom and approached Adrien. “Okay, how do I climb a rock wall?”

He was bouncing on the balls of his feet as he explained basic form and technique to her, talking a little too quickly for her to quite understand and tripping over his words in excitement.  _ Well _ , she reasoned,  _ if the most overprotective parents in Paris put a rock-climbing wall in an eight-year-old’s bedroom, it can’t be that dangerous.  _

“I’ll go first,” Adrien said when he was finished explaining. He ran up the spiral staircase to the library landing before hopping over the railing to reach the first hold on the rock wall. He shimmied up the blue portion effortlessly, and Nathalie knew from watching him that he had done that same route countless times. “See? Easy. Your turn.”

Nathalie took the same path up the stairs and over to the rock wall, and stuck her foot out tentatively. Her toes found a hold, and she pushed herself up and grabbed the next rock with her outstretched arm.  _ Push with your legs, don’t pull with your arms _ , she reminded herself.  _ Keep your arms straight to conserve energy. _

At long last, she made it to the top of the blue wall, and lowered herself down carefully. When her feet hit the landing, she was relieved.  _ Don’t people usually use chalk for this? My hands definitely have blisters _ . 

“That was pretty good!” Adrien commented happily, and Nathalie smiled a bit. “Now, do the red part!”

Nathalie just about fell off the landing onto the floor. She turned around slowly and stared at her next opponent.

The red part of Adrien’s climbing wall wasn’t just vertical; as the climb went on, the wall sloped further and further forward. If she finished, she would be nearly parallel to the floor, hanging from the ceiling.

“You first,” she said, but Adrien shook his head.

“I went first last time. Plus, neither of us know when Mother and Father are going to need you again and take you away. You might not do it at all if I go first.”

_ That was my hope _ , she said to herself, but of course she couldn’t say that out loud. Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared back at the wall, trying to find the best way up.

After a few moments of deliberation, Nathalie hopped up on the stool on the landing and reached for the first hold.

The blue wall had been hard enough, but the red wall was pure agony. Already tired and sore from activity she wasn’t used to, she was stretching and straining to make any progress at all.  _ Who thought installing this in Adrien’s room was a good idea? _ she asked herself several times on her journey upward.  _ I can barely do this, and I’m an adult. He probably can’t even reach between two holds! _

She was so close to the finish, practically able to touch the last rock, when Adrien’s bedroom door opened. 

“Adrien, I need--” Gabriel started before cutting himself off. He looked around the room, seemingly confused. “Where is Nathalie?”

“Up here, sir,” she called out. 

His expression when his eyes landed on her was nothing short of incredible. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, you know," she panted, "Just hanging out."

“Gabriel, darling, what are you staring at?” Emilie’s voice wandered in from the hallway, followed by the woman herself. She too trained her eyes on Nathalie. “Are those my clothes?”

Nathalie winced. “Mrs. Agreste, I--”

“I lent them to her so she would climb with me,” Adrien jumped in, cutting Nathalie off. “I finished all my work, don’t worry.”

Emilie looked to Nathalie for confirmation, and Nathalie nodded, saving her breath. Emile  _ hmph _ ed and left the room with a shrug. “Well, if you say so.”

Gabriel stayed put. “Don’t let me interrupt your climb. You’re not finished yet, correct?”

Nathalie’s arms were shaking as she finally made contact with the last rock. She took herself back down to the floor as quickly as she could without breaking her neck. 

Gabriel and Adrien were waiting for her when she landed. “I didn’t know you climbed,” he commented neutrally, and Nathalie felt herself blushing even though she was sure her skin was already red from exertion.

“I don’t,” she said, more breathy than she would have liked. “Adrien is a good teacher.”

Adrien stood up a little straighter at that. 

“Well, then, you must be a fast learner,” Gabriel replied. “And stronger than I previously realized, as well. Climbing requires a lot of strength.”

“I go to the gym when I can make it.”

“Is that so.” Gabriel stared at her for a moment longer, just long enough for Nathalie to be afraid of what he would say next, and then he walked towards the door. “Please join me in my office in an hour, after you have showered and changed back into your regular clothes.”

Nathalie nodded, and he closed the door behind him. “Wow,” she said aloud. “That was exhausting.”  _ I must be really gross right now if Gabriel Agreste would have me spend business time on a shower _ . 

“You can use my shower,” Adrien offered, and Nathalie smiled. “Thank you for doing this with me. It was fun!”

“Maybe for you,” she countered, and then took a moment to think about it. “Well, maybe for me, too. I haven’t decided yet.”

“How can you not know if you had fun or not?”

Nathalie let a laugh escape, which didn’t happen often. “When I wake up tomorrow, if my muscles hurt too much for me to get out of bed, I didn’t have fun.”

She took a hot shower and joined her boss exactly fifty-nine minutes later. Thankfully, the day was almost over, and she soon was on her way home to her apartment. She threw her clothes on the floor and crashed into bed without even brushing her teeth.

It took her ten minutes to get out of bed the next morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me and drop prompts in my inbox on [Tumblr!](http://www.skeletoncloset.tumblr.com)
> 
> [My reference for Adrien's bedroom](https://officialmiraculousladybug.tumblr.com/post/158757778921/2d-and-3d-backgrounds-of-adriens-bedroom)


End file.
